Dec 8 The Cambrian Explosion of 3D Printers

Another new and innovative 3D printer kit available on KickStarter. Venture funding starts up another 3D printer factory. And then we read Rachel Park's blog post. She reported on her experience at Euromold, where even more low-cost personal 3D printers emerged. That got us thinking about explosions. Cambrian explosions.

But, you ask, what is/was a Cambrian explosion? Some 530 million years ago, give or take, something amazing happened on our planet: The Cambrian Explosion. It was an era where multicellular life truly expanded into an incredible variety of shapes and forms. Fossils from this era are very peculiar, with invariably bizarre body plans that often provoke a "what the heck were they thinking?" reaction.

What was happening back then? Evolution took its course, as many approaches to multi-cellular life were attempted and only the best designs survived. From this era we gained such design features as body symmetry, four (or six or eight, etc.) main appendages, head on top, and so on.

The same thing happens in a new technology, when many different approaches are attempted, but only the most useful and effective survive. Well, sometimes "most funded" also applies here, but you get the idea.

This week saw the introduction of quite a few personal 3D printers. Each has a uniqueness believed to be the key feature to win over the market. Who will win? We'll only know after evolution takes its course.

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has been writing Fabbaloo posts since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has been writing Fabbaloo posts since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!